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Everything went still and silent

I narrowed aze around the circle of

The spider nearest its dead co Then, in a much quieter voice, it trilled, "Let the wizard pass"

"Daht let him pass," I h I intended to sot inwithout slowing, breaking stride, or looking back They didn&039;t kno fastwith fear And as long as they didn&039;t, I would be just fine

After a hundred yards or so, I did look back-only to see the spiders gathered over the body of their dead cos twitching and jerking hungrily I shuddered andyou can count on when visiting the Nevernever: you don&039;t ever get bored

I turned off the forest path onto a foot trail at a tree whose trunk had been carved with a pentacle The trees turned into evergreens and crowded close to the trail Thingsnoises, and I could barely hear high-pitched whispers and sibilant voices co from the forest around me Creepy, but par for the course

The path led up to a clearing in the woods Centered in the clearing was a h, thick with stones and vines Massive slabs of rock forure in a grey cloak stood beside the doorway, a lean and fit-looking young h to slice bread and eyes of cobalt blue Beneath the grey cloak, he wore an expensive dark blue cashmere suit, with a cream-colored shirt and a metallic copper-colored tie A black bowler topped off the ense rod, he bore a silver-headed walking cane in his right hand

He was also holding the cane at full extension, pointed directly at me with narrowed, serious eyes as I came down the trail

I stopped and waved a hand "Easy there, Steed"

The young man lowered the cane, and his face blossoer "Ah," he said "Not too obvious a look, one hopes?"

"It&039;s a classic," I said "How you doing, Chandler?"

"I a off ant accent straight froround in preparatory academies, and metric tons of British fortitude" Those intense blue eyes took a second look at ained a touch of concern "How are you, Harry?"

"Been a long night," I said, walking forward "Aren&039;t there supposed to be five of you watching the door?"

"Five ofthe door? Are you mad? The sheer power of the concentrated fashion sense would obliterate visitors on sight"

I burst out in a short laugh "You ood?"

"Precisely, and I shall" He tilted his head thoughtfully "I can&039;t remember the last time I saw you here"

"I only visited once," I said "And that was a few years ago, right after they drafted s you out of Chicago?"

"I heard about Morgan"

The young Warden&039;s expression darkened "Yes," he said quietly "It&039;s hard to believe You&039;re here to help find him?"

"I&039;ve found ain" I paused For whatever reason, Chandler was al near the Senior Council If anyone would know the scuttlebutt, he would "Who do you think I should talk to about it?"

"Wizard Liberty is coordinating the search," he replied "Wizard Listens-to-Wind is investigating the scene of thethe word out to the rest of the Council to convene an eency session"

I nodded "What about Wizard McCoy?"

"Standing by with a strike team, when last I heard," Chandler replied "He&039;s one of the feho can reasonably expect to overpower Morgan"

"Yeah," I said "Morgan&039;s a pain in the ass, all right" I shivered and staot so to want Where do I find them?"

Chandler considered "Ancient Mai should be in the Crystalline Hall, Wizard Liberty is in the Offices, Wizard McCoy should be somewhere near the War Room and Wizard Listens-to-Wind and the Merlin are in LaFortier&039;s chambers"

"How about the Gatekeeper?" I asked

Chandler shrugged "Gatekeeping, I daresay The only wizard I see less frequently than he is you"

I nodded "Thanks, Chandler" I faced him soberly and put a formal solemnity in my voice as I adhered to security protocols more than five centuries old "I seek entry to the Hidden Halls, O Warden May I pass?"

He eyed al nod, his eyes twinkling "Be welcome to the seat of the White Council Enter in peace and depart in peace"

I nodded to hih the archway

I&039;d coht onto what I was doing, I wouldn&039;t depart in peace

Just in pieces

Chapter Fourteen

The Hidden Halls of Edinburgh were the redoubt and fortress of the White Council of Wizardry from time immemorial Well, actually, that last bit isn&039;t true It&039;s been our headquarters for a little under five hundred years

The White Council has existed since pre-Roman times, in one form or another, and its headquarters has shifted froe, Rome-ere in the Vatican in the early days of the Church, believe it or not-Constantinople and Madrid have all been home to the Council&039;s leadership at one ties, they&039;ve been located in the tunnels and cataco stone of Scotland

Edinburgh&039;s tunnel network is even o, and infinitely more stable and sturdy The main headquarters of the complex is located deep beneath the Auld Rock itself-Castle Edinburgh, where kings and queens, lords and ladies, have defied, besieged, betrayed and slaughtered one another since pre-Christian times

There&039;s a reason a fortress has been there for as long as est convergences of ley lines Ley lines are the natural currents of h the world They are the ic known to man-and the lines that intersect in the earth deep below the Auld Rock represent a staggering a to be tapped by soh

I walked over a ley line about three steps after I entered the Hidden Halls, and I could feel its shuddering energy beneathby like an enormous, silent subterranean river I walked a bit faster for a few paces, irrationally nervous about being swept off of my feet by it, until I could only sense it as a diround

I didn&039;t need to call up a light Crystals set in the walls glowed in a rainbow of gentle colors, bathing the whole place in soft, ambient illumination The tunnel was ancient, worn, chilly, and damp Water always seemed ready to condense into a half-frozen dew the instant it was given the opportunity by an exhaled breath or a warm body

The tunnel was about as wide as h The walls were lined with bas-relief carvings in the stone Some of them were renditions of scenes of what I&039;d been told were the historical high points of the White Council Since I didn&039;t recognize anyone in the ies, I didn&039;t have much context for them, so they mostly just looked like the crudely drawn cast of thousands you see on the Bayeux Tapestry The rest of the carvings ards-seriously world-class heavyweight wards I didn&039;t knohat they did, but I could sense the deadly power behind them, and I tread carefully as I passed deeper into the complex

The entry tunnel fro, sloping gently doard the whole way There were ates every couple of hundred yards, each of them manned by a Warden backed up by a pair of Ancient Mai&039;s teh at the shoulder, and looked like escapees froures sat inert and ierous life at an instant&039;s notice I tried to think about what itstatues in the relatively narrow hallway I decided that I&039;d rather wrestle an onco subway locomotive At least then it would be over quickly

I exchanged polite greetings with the Wardens on guard until I passed the last checkpoint and entered the headquarters proper Then I took a folded s The layout of the tunnels was coet lost

Where to begin?

If the Gatekeeper had been around, I would have sought him out first Rashid had been my supporter and ally on more than one occasion, God knehy I wasn&039;t on what anyone would call good terms with the Merlin I barely knew Martha Liberty or Listens-to-Wind I found Ancient Mai to be a very scary little person That left Ebenezar

I headed for the War Room

It took et there Like I said, the tunnel complex is enormous-and after the way the war had reduced the ranks of the Council, it seemed lonelier and emptier than ever My footsteps echoed hollowly back from stone walls for minutes at a time, unaccompanied by any other sound

I felt intensely uncomfortable as I paced the Hidden Halls I think it was the s man, hauled before the Council to be tried as a violator of the First Law of Magic, they had brought h The musty, wet, mineral smell of the place had been almost all I knehile I had waited, hooded and bound, in a cell for a full day I re horribly cold and tortured by the knots my muscles worked themselves into after somore alone than ever into happen

I had been scared So scared I was sixteen

It was the same smell, and that scent had the power to ani theical necro the word out

If you can&039;t stop the bad thoughts fro to visit, at least you canaround

In a stroke of iic, the War Room was located between the central chambers of the Senior Council and the barracks rooms of the Wardens, which included a sh the

I passed the barracks, which would doubtless be empty, for the an, as evidenced by the skeleton guard I&039;d seen at Chandler&039;s post I took the next left, nodded to the very young Warden on guard, opened a door, and passed into the War Room of the White Council

It was a spacious vault, about a hundred feet square, but the heavy arches and pillars that supported the ceiling took away a lot of that roohtly here, toframes took up spaces between pillars, and were covered by maps and pins and tiny notes Most of them had one or rams, cryptic, brief notation, and cruder maps Completely ordinary office furniture occupied the back half of the vault, broken up into cubicles

Typewriters clacked and dinged Men and women of the adh the roo A row of counters on the front wall of the room supported coffeepots warmed by propane flames, and several orn couches and chairs rested nearby

Half a dozen veteran Wardens lay sprawled on couches napping, sat in chairs reading books, or played chess with an old set upon a coffee table Their staves and cloaks were all at hand, ready to be taken up at an instant&039;s notice They were dangerous, hard men and women, the Old Guard, survivors of the deadly days of the early Vampire War I wouldn&039;t have wanted to cross any of thehtly apart froh stone fireplace, sat my old mentor, Ebenezar McCoy He held a cup of coffee in his thick, work-scarred fingers A lot of the more senior wizards in the Council had a sense of propriety they took way too seriously, always dressed to the nines, always immaculate and proper Ebenezar wore an old pair of denim overalls with a flannel shirt and leather work boots that could have been thirty or forty years old His silver hair, what he had left of it, was in disarray, as if he&039;d just woken fro, even by wizard standards, but his shoulders were still wide, and the e-spotted skin He stared at the fire through wire-rimmed spectacles, his dark eyes unfocused, one foot slowly tapping the floor

I leaned ot myself a cup of coffee, and settled down in the chair beside Ebenezar&039;s I sipped coffee, let the warmth of the fire drive some of the wet chill out of ood coffee here," Ebenezar said a few moments later

"And they don&039;t call it funny narandechino"

Ebenezar snorted and sipped from his cup "Nice trip in?"

"Got tripped up by sorimaced "Aye We&039;ve had our people harassed several times, the past few months How are you, Hoss?"

"Uninformed, sir," I said

He eyed ht best, boy I won&039;t apologize for it"

"Don&039;t expect you to," I said

He nodded "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think?"

He shook his head "I won&039;t take you on the strike teaht?"

He turned his eyes to ot to be dispassionate, and you&039;re just about the least dispassionate person I know"

I grunted "You&039;re sure it was Morgan who did LaFortier?"

His eyes returned to the fire "I would never have expected it But too s are in place"

"No chance it&039;s a frame?"

Ebenezar blinked and shot me a look "Why do you ask?"

"Because if the ass is finally getting his comeuppance, I want to make sure it&039;s on the level," I said

He nodded a couple of times Then he said, "I don&039;t see how it could have been done It looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, odds are it&039;s a damn duck Occaotten into his head," I said

"At his age?" Ebenezar asked "Ain&039;t likely"

I frowned "What do you ets established," he said, "more set in its ways Like atree Supple when it&039;s young, but gets es Once you&039;ve been around a century or so, it generally ain&039;t possible to bend ait"

"Generally?"

"You can&039;t push it that far," Ebenezar said "Push a loyalhe believes in? You&039;d drive him insane before you forced hian made a choice"

"If he did it" I shookan ourselves"

Ebenezar grily all the way around," he said, "but there it is I reckon you &039;gazed him, Hoss, but it ain&039;t a lie detector You know that, too"

I fell silent for a while and sipped coffee Then I asked, "Just curious Who holds the shen you catch hi"

"Captain Luccio, I reckon," Ebenezar said "Or someone she appoints But she ain&039;t the kind to foist soot treated to theher old apprentice Then ofMolly&039;s head I shuddered "That sucks"

Ebenezar kept staring at the fire, and his eyes seeht in front of me "Aye"

The door to the War Room opened and a slender, reedy little wizard in a tan tweed suit entered, lugging a large portfolio His short white hair was curled tightly against his head and his fingers were stained with ink There was a pencil tucked behind one ear, and a fountain pen behind the other He stopped and peered around the rooht on over

"Pardon, Wizard McCoy," he said "If you have a n off on a few papers"

Ebenezar put his coffee on the floor and accepted awith the fountain pen "What this time, Peabody?"

"First, power of attorney for the office in Jakarta to purchase the building for the new safe house," Wizard Peabody said, opening the folder and turning a page Ebenezar scanned it, then signed it Peabody turned ood Then an approval on the revision of wages for Wardens-initial there, please, thank you And the last one is approval for ensuring Wizard LaFortier&039;s holdings are transferred to his heirs"

"Only three?" Ebenezar asked

"The others are eyes-only, sir"

Ebenezar sighed "I&039;ll drop by n them"

"Sooner is better, sir," Peabody said He blinked and seemed to notice s you here?"

"I thought I&039;d coan down," I drawled

Peabody gulped "I see"

"Has Injun Joe found anything?" Ebenezar asked

Peabody&039;s voice became laced with diffident disapproval as he answered "Wizard Listens-to-Wind is deep in preparations for investigative divination, sir"

"So, no," I said

Peabody sniffed "Not yet Between him and the Merlin, I&039;ed to bypass Senior Council security" He glanced at me and said, in a perfectly polite tone, "They are both wizards of considerable experience and skill, after all"

I glowered at Peabody, but I couldn&039;t think of a good dig before he had accepted the papers and pen back from Ebenezar Peabody nodded to him and said, "Thank you, sir"

Ebenezar nodded absently as he picked up his coffee cup, and Peabody bustled out again

"Paper-pushing twit," I muttered undertwit," Ebenezar corrected anizational skills have been a critical asset since the outbreak of the war"

I snorted "Bureaucromancer"

Ebenezar sertips of his right hand stained with blue ink Then he rose and stretched, drawing several faint popping sounds froht a ithout clerks, Hoss"

I stared down athypothetically What if Morgan is innocent?"

He frowned down at ht you wanted a piece of hiot this weird tic where I don&039;t want to watch wrongly accused men beheaded"

"Well, naturally you do But, Hoss, you&039;ve got to underst-" Ebenezar froze abruptly and his eyes widened They went distant with thought for ain his head

His eyes snapped back toin a murmur "So that&039;s it You&039;re sure?"

I nodded my head once

"Hell&039;s bells," the oldyour questions a lot more careful than that, Hoss" He lowered his chin and looked at me over the rims of his spectacles "Two heads fall as fast as one You understand?"

I nodded slowly "Yeah"

"Don&039;t knohat I can do for you," he said "I&039;ve got an&039;s located"

"Assu?"

He pursed his lips for a moment Then he nodded slowly and said, "Injun Joe"